Judge: Responsibility for Fox River cleanup will go to trial

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Cleaning up contaminated sediment from the Fox River in Brown County remains stalled until a judge can figure out who has to pay for the project, which could cost more than $1 billion.

WLUK-TV reports U.S. District Judge William Griesbach ruled Thursday the matter will go to trial in December. Earlier this week, Griesbach removed Appleton Papers as a defendant in the lawsuit over who should bear the cost of cleaning toxic chemicals from the lower part of the river.

The company, in partnership with NCR Corp., has already spent $300 million to rid the river of sediment contaminated by the discharge of papermaking waste chemicals years ago.

State and federal environmental officials are seeking to speed up the dredging operation, and had asked the judge to force NCR to resume full-scale dredging.